Plans for the new government to introduce legislation for cyber security, digital and data were outlined in the King's speech on 17 July 2024.

There were many bills announced, including a new Cyber Security and Resilience bill to expand regulation to cover more digital services and supply chains, empower regulators and mandate increased incident reporting to improve the government's response to cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks are reported daily, including on for NHS England data on 11 July 2024, massively affecting appointment waiting times.  In the same week, the National Cyber Security Centre issued an alert on 9th July 2024 that China state-sponsored actors have evolved their techniques for launching cyber attacks.

A Digital Information and Smart Data Bill was also announced which will enable new, 'innovative' uses of data to help boost the economy.  Although the speech did not include an AI bill, it outlined how the government would 'seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models'.  This follows the recent news that on July 12th 2024, the European Union approved the Artificial Intelligence Act to regulate AI systems across its 27 Member States.

The full King's Speech is available online.

Source of summary: DigitalHealth
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